Go lang

Piolo Pascual singing Madonna's Jump in a black tank top, jeans and high-cut sneakers is awesome:

What is the sound of Aiko Melendez laughing?

Comelec, stricter criteria for political aspirants please. Thanks.

Tita Aida

Asked if there was any measure that the government could implement to address the purported rise in HIV cases, Ms Arroyo said: “First of all, are [the reports] on this supposed HIV epidemic real?

-- Steady rise in HIV cases noted by Rey M. Nasol for PDI

From the same article, the Philippine National AIDS Council said there is at least one new HIV case reported every three days.

OK, so let us trust this government to sit on this one.

On the other hand, it is not the government's responsibility to abstain from sex, or use protection when having one.

In a TV Patrol report last week, it said that free medication for HIV patients in government hospitals will stop within the year (or I think in 2011 -- can't remember). Afterward, it will cost from P10,000 to P15,000 a month. That's P120,000 to P180,000 a year!

Also, my previous entry: If you can't abstain, then stay protected

Or perhaps...

it is the material. Is Rent still relevant today? Sure, it discusses love, life and death, but the characters are limited by, for one, the lack of social networks online. Mark needn't have waited a year to screen his documentary -- he could have uploaded weekly episodes on YouTube. Maureen could've had a wider audience -- the world in fact, via live streaming. Or Twitter. Benny could have had blackmailed Mimi with her sex video. There'd be no answering machines -- everyone is visible and online.

In other words, I felt that the material was dated and therefore, less comprehensible for the young Pinoy, and the characters, less accessible to the actors.

Rent: Hits and Misses

Here's my nice :-) review of 9 Works Theatrical's staging of Rent:

From left: Anna Santamaria, Job Bautista, OJ Mariano, Carla Laforteza and Mark Tayag

-- Carla Guevara-Laforteza as Maureen was riveting and smashing; her portrayal stole the show from everyone who was on the stage with her. Watch out for her Over the Moon performance, which brought the house down. (And if my poor memory serves me right, it was better than Monique Wilson's.) She also started the production rolling -- it had a rough start (the bad news: she won't be onstage until the last quarter of Act 1). Carla was also hot as a lesbian.

-- Pleasantly surprised with Oj Mariano's Tom Collins considering this is his acting debut. There is a believable chemistry between his character and Angel (Job Bautista).

-- I wonder if Mikey Arroyo was Noel Rayos's peg for the smirking Benny. This made him really irritating.

-- I liked the voice of Nicole Asensio (Mimi)

-- I liked the ensemble; Gary Junsay in particular looked really pissed.

-- I also liked Jenny Villegas as Joanne but my lesbian friends don't agree because they found her old and unfashionable relative to Maureen.

-- Fredison Lo (Mark) is extremely cute

-- Everyone had their accents down pat

Fredison Lo, Gian Magdangal, Nicole Asensio and Peachy Atilano

Now, for a few unsolicited suggestions:

-- The other actors would need to step up. Hunching over with your trench coats does not automatically make you starving, derelicts, cool, hip and dying.

-- There should be sexual chemistry/tension in Would You Light My Candle; I don't understand why Gian Magdangal's Roger is so disgusted with Mimi's... goods.

-- The chemistry problem goes on throughout the play, I just couldn't find myself rooting for these people. (Mark was practically a cardboard, save for his number with Joanne, The Tango Maureen.) Benny could have razed their apartment building to the ground for all I care.

-- Angel was cute as a button, which is a problem. She should be a diva, the star! But that's hard with Carla being so good as Maurene.

-- Demmit, Will I is my favorite number -- please work on this.

-- Audio was awful

At the post-show press conference, I liked the question of Michelle Katigbak (The Philippine Star) because the actors' responses addressed my nagging thoughts behind the acting snags: for the younger ones, how do you relate to the material?

Fredison answered, by reading books and articles on the Internet.

But Rent is real life, it's out there.

Meryl Streep will not like.

* * * *

Rent runs on February 5, 6, 7, 12, 13, 14, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27 and 28, at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza

God may actually prefer atheists

You know what? I wholeheartedly agree.

I'm a changed person after having read this book:



I've read about this book in my online researches and thought it impossible to be available locally; however, as if God led me to it, I accidentally found it in Fully Booked, a lone, "well-read" copy, hence its discounted price.

After having finished it, it made me realize so many things. Chiefly, we are raging mad at the Ampatuans, but the Catholic Church, as just one example of other religious institutions, has killed a thousand times more. Why give them the moral authority? To preach about heaven and hell for that matter?

And why is it the Church's duty to always make us feel guilty? Why do I have this so-called "original sin"? Because of Adam and Eve, who historically speaking, never existed? I was born a baby, guilty of no sin against ANYONE (well, maybe except my mother, who had to endure a full day of labor) -- I resent the Church for laying on me the sins of a mythical couple. And let's not get started about their sin: that they ate a fruit, which they weren't exactly 100-percent guilty for anyway. After all, Eve was tempted by a... uh, talking snake.

It is because of these sins that we've embraced perpetual guilt; the need to appease and please, in ways that add to the Church's coffers and ego. (Case study: Mike Velarde; plus: religious leaders who feel important enough to "anoint" political aspirants.)

* * * *
Further digression: the Pope, who attacked the UK's equality and anti-discrimination laws, is visiting the country and the British government is spending £20 million for it? Wow, I'd be royally pissed if I were the taxpayer.
* * * *

It is also because of this guilty card that we genuflect and bow our heads before our priests -- as a sign of subservience to the organization. If that's not what it is, then praying while sitting, standing or lying in bed should be deemed disrespectful.

As for me, I will live life the way I please it: with the help of my conscience because I am smart enough to know what's wrong from right, as I trust human beings are, even without having been corrupted by this grand, Romanian conspiracy. (I don't know enough of other religions to comment, but the Christopher Hitchens book make excellent cases against them as well.)

And if I die, and there does happen to be a God, then great! He, in his infinite wisdom, cannot fault me for defecting from a group that has been historically, and is still presently, and I'm restraining myself here... nuts.

Battle of the hottest TV reporters

While Anderson Cooper is the world's hottest, local news do have a handful of cute reporters to balance all that gore and chaos (read: politics) that they report about.

There's ABS-CBN's Atom Araullo (sorry, jailbait pa sya dito, lol):



GMA's Mark Salazar:



And oh my, Chris Zuñiga, whom I've never seen and heard of until today:



Ding, ding, ding!!! We have a winner! LOL!

ABS-CBN, please put him on the air more often.

Mon, I love you :-D

So who else are hot? Comment away! (Please don't put Kuya Kim.)

In Passing

My 18-year old copy of Catcher in the Rye

I think there’s a moment in your life when you need to have read Catcher in the Rye to have appreciated it: not too early, as I did in high school, when being the relatively perfect student that I was, I easily dismissed Holden Caulfield as a lazy, good for nothing rebel; nor too late, as in now, when I can easily dismiss him as naive, too young and idealistic.

You read it at that point in your life——or in my case, re-read as a rebel student in college——during which the world goes beyond the four corners of your classroom and you question having a perfect attendance or being prepared for surprise exams as a measure of self-worth. That exact point, during which the world revolves around you and your dreams alone and not around having to earn your keep.

You read it while you are on that brink of finally deciding, for the first time in your life, who you are going to be.

* * * *

Reuters: Reclusive author J.D. Salinger dies at 91

Nonconfrontational

What do we have here? It hasn't been a week since I blogged about Villar's dubious records and there are already new reports on his attempts at bribing.

From Inquirer: Villar tried to buy me off—Enrile

From GMA: Amid C-5 controversy, Enrile claims getting 'offers' from Villar

On the other hand, ABS CBN toned down its language:

Villar tried to stave off censure: Enrile

From the ABS CBN report, Villar's party spokesperson Gilbert Remulla reiterates the presidential candidate's excuse as to why he hasn't answered these allegations in the senate:

"During the interview, Remulla said Villar is still not inclined to attend the Senate committee's adjudicatory hearings since members of the investigating panel had already made up their minds about Villar's guilt...

He said Villar was not confrontational and is unwilling to fire back at his opponents.

"If he appears before a group that has already judged him including the Senate President, how could he explain his side when the group will no longer listen to his explanation? In all their statements, they have already made their decision. He will go there and endure mudslinging, magkakasakitan lang sila, what for?" he said.

He added: "[Villar] has never fought anyone. He is not confrontational...If he appears there, they will fling mud at him and it is not his nature to fling mud back."

Wow, Gilbert surely stressed how his boss is... let's repeat it... nonconfrontational. Which is the problem.

Because you see Gilbert, Arroyo was nonconfrontational too. She was nonconfrontational about the ZTE scandal. She didn't confront us about the fertilizer scam scandal. She never confronted private armies. She wouldn't have confronted the Hello Garci scandal if not for the mounting pressure from the public and her own Cabinet, and all we got from that was a lousy sorry.

So yes, for someone who's reputation is at stake, I would imagine him to be confrontational about this whole matter; in fact, I would expect him to be enraged, facing his accusers and answering them point by point.

What can we expect from a President Villar? One who hides in Malacanang or goes out of the country when besieged with criticisms?

Weak.

The elephant

I was in Topman yesterday and while going through the racks of clothes, I noticed this guy with scabs -- literally open wounds -- on his entire arms, neck and face. I figured he must have serious skin disease. He browsed through the shirts, as one would flip through pages of a book, and for each flip, a shirt grazed his wounds.

Everyone decided to be politically correct about it and shut their mouth: the cashier, the sales attendants, other shoppers, myself. Granted it wasn't a transmittable disease, and god knows how many unseen germs/bacteria there are on other people's arms and bodies, I still thought it was inconsiderate of the guy.

He also stood in line for the fitting room.